Planar Ships 3-Chip DLP Projector

Beaverton, Oregon – Planar Systems began shipping this week its first 3-chip DLP projector for the custom home theater market.

Planar’s new Viper is a native 720 3-chip DLP projector that is said to produce exceptional black level performance at a $15,495 suggested retail price.

Called the Viper, the projector offers 1280-by-720 native HD resolution with 2,000 lumens of brightness and a 10,000:1 contrast ratio. It is capable of projecting screen sizes greater than 110 inches, the company said. It carries a $15,495 suggested retail price.

"The combination of Planar’s display prowess and superior 3-chip DLP technology afforded us the opportunity to produce a custom home theater projector that is unrivaled in this market segment," stated Brian Carskadon, Planar product management director. "Viper’s exceptional image performance, most notably in contrast and black levels, combined with its exclusive design and integration features, reaffirms Planar’s commitment to offer the most impressive video displays where the image experience really matters."

The unit was said to have been engineered to deliver exceptional black level performance, and the 3-chip design produces richer, accurate colors without the need for a color wheel.

It adds 10-bit independent dual image and motion adaptive processing, while allowing reproduction of all native film and video formats (1080p, 1080p-24, 1080i, 720p, 576p and 480p), the company said.

The Viper’s cabinet has a curved industrial design with high-gloss piano black finish.

To assist in installations, Viper delivers five lens options, power zoom and focus, and horizontal and vertical lens shift. Intelligent lens shift technology prohibits lens shift outside the image area to eliminate shadowing or clipping the image. Also included are an RS-232 automation interface with discrete on/off, input selection and aspect ratio control, as well as two HDMI 1.3 with Deep Color inputs.